Irish genealogy "brick walls" can be daunting, but not impossible to overcome. One of our genealogists shares her advice on extending your Irish family history.The expression “can’t see the forest for the trees,” is used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. As much as we want to be able to quickly climb straight up Irish trees, it is often impossible without leveraging what the rest of the forest has to tell us. This type of research … [Read more...]

Those who have been involved in tracing their Irish ancestry are aware of the challenge of record loss during the fire at the Four Courts Building in 1922. The good news is that there are still many Irish records which survived. The challenge is to locate them! Depending on the type of record, they were kept—and indexed—using different geographical divisions. It is vital to know specifically where the ancestral family was from in order to locate them in documents of interest.Finding Irish … [Read more...]

Researching Irish ancestry can be notoriously difficult. One of our genealogists shares her expert tips to trace your elusive Irish ancestors.*Case study shared with client permission.A client was looking to trace the ancestry of her Irish great-grandmother, Eliza Kennedy. Eliza was the wife of Thomas Morgan and they had several children, among them the client’s grandfather, Frank. Not much was known about Eliza; an aunt claimed that Eliza was from Cork and told stories about Eliza … [Read more...]

Those of us with Irish ancestors know that many of them left Ireland because of the crushing poverty caused by the high rents imposed by absentee landlords, the Great Famine, and a high birth rate among a predominantly Roman Catholic population. While we can’t help but feel sorrow for their circumstances, the very reason those ancestors left Ireland can help us learn more about their lives before their immigration. Two sets of Dublin-based records - Deserted Children Dublin and Dublin Workhouses … [Read more...]

Irish research can be difficult. Although the island is small--about the same size as the state of Indiana--its violent history and many divisions makes research complicated. In addition, many United States records simply report that our ancestors were from Ireland with no indication of the county of their birth. However, knowing a little bit about the history and geography can provide the necessary clues. Here are four tips that can help you trace your Irish ancestors from the United States … [Read more...]

March and St. Patrick's Day trigger a flurry of Irish genealogical activity every year. It's a great time to focus on those lines that have Irish ancestry!MyHeritage.com is offering free access to part of their Irish records collection this weekend (through 17 March2014). Ancestry.com has some information about new additions to their Irish collections as well as a discussion about Irish DNA. If you've already begun writing your Irish story, FamilySearch.org has a great place to add your … [Read more...]